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Vendors aim to get cloud app development off the ground

Developers have been building cloud applications for years, but they have been doing it offline. A new batch of vendors is trying to change that, putting developers in the cloud with their applications through cloud integrated development environments, or cloud IDE. But while developers and the cloud applications they have created have been enormously disruptive in companies, the developers themselves have stuck with their preferred brush and canvas -- the desktop IDE and the text editor. “That’s probably the main issue we face,” said Benjamin Mestrallet, founder and CEO of eXo, one of several major cloud IDE vendors. “When you’re used to something, it’s extremely difficult to change, especially in an application where things get done.” The development environment is a personal one for developers, one that they often customize to their own specifications. They are used to their individual workstations and are not easily persuaded to give them up. Cloud IDE offerings from Cloud9, eXo, Eclipse (Orion) and others are planting the ...